History Talks: Admiral Bristol and the Internal Affairs of Turkey (1923-1925)

Speaker: 

Hakan Özoğlu (Central Florida University, Middle East Research Center)

History Talks are organized by İstanbul Bilgi University Department of History.

The World War I period which resulted in the reshaping of the Middle East coincides with the tenure of Rear Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol as the U.S. High Commissioner in the Ottoman Empire and later the Turkish Republic (1919-1927). Bristol can be credited as one of the most influential diplomats who helped shape the U.S. foreign policy in the Ottoman Empire, out of which the Modern Middle East emerged. Admiral Bristol’s observations and recommendations to the U.S. Department of State concerning the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the emergence of the Republic of Turkey are of utmost significance for the historian for it laid the very foundation of the strategic partnership between Turkey and the U.S. This talk will present several significant documents sent to the State Department by Admiral Mark Lambert Bristol. We will first examine his views on the emerging Kemalist regime, which will be followed by discussions on such significant events in the early republican period as the abolition of the Caliphate, the nature of the Kemalist regime, political rivalry in the early Turkish Republic.

Date: December 26, 2017
Time: 16.00
Place: santralistanbul Campus, E2-301